Don’t Find This Footage

Good morning Consumers, This is Please Consume, the film newsletter that loves you more than Quentin Tarantino loves feet.

This week we will be taking you into the depth of horror cinema this Halloween season.

The genre simultaneously is most beloved and most melined.

We here at Please Consume love horror in all of its blood splattered glory.

We are excited and hope you are too!

What We Do in The Shadows (2014)

Written by Caleb Madden

 For most of my life I have actively run away from horror movies. I’m just not that big of a fan of being scared. For the past few years, though, I have been slowly dipping my toe into the horror genre. Turns out I don’t hate it as much as I thought I would!

However, my resistance to horror movies has led me to being much more interested in the fringe genres in the horror house.

Which is why this week I’m picking “Parody Horror” as my horror genre and my film is What We Do in the Shadows!

“These Are My Flatmates”

Parody horror has a long and storied history. Movies like Zombieland, Scary Movie, and Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein are all wonderful entries into this niche subgenre. However, What We Do in the Shadows might just be one of the funniest entries in this cannon. What makes this film so damn funny can be traced back to three main points: setting, cinematography, and acting.

What We Do in the Shadows is set in a New Zealand apartment shared by four vampires. Yep, just four immortal beings living in an apartment in New Zealand. Something about these creatures who are so powerful and often portrayed as monstrous and demonic creatures living such a lackluster and boring life is wildly hilarious. At the start of the movie Viago (played by Taika Waititi) calls a “flat meeting” where all of the vampires congregate in the tiny kitchen and discuss who should do what chores. It is absurd and it is this mundane and modern setting that really sets the tone for an extremely funny film.

Don’t Find This Footage

In 1999 The Blair Witch Project took over the screen and redefined what the horror genre could be with a clever and terrifying filming technique known as “found footage.” What We Do in The Shadows adapts a version of this technique and combines it with the very popular documentary style of filmmaking. These two combined make for a scary yet strangely disarming watching experience.

There is a scene where one of the vampires’ familiars brings two of her friends over to be eaten by the vampires. Ultimately the attempt at murder goes south and we watch as one of the people tries to run out of the house. This sequence is filmed in such a jarring and genuinely scary way, but the genius of What We Do in the Shadows is that it brings the audience to this moment of fear and pays it off with a joke instead of a jump scare.

Dimwitted Dandy

The final piece of What We Do in the Shadows is the acting and performances. There are only 5 main vampires in the film played by Taika Waititi, Jemaine Clement, Jonny Brugh, Cori Gonzalez-Macuer, and Ben Fransham. I am not exaggerating when I say that these 5 performances are some of the funniest things I’ve ever seen.

I could talk about my favorite moments in the movie forever, so I’ll just talk about one of the stand out moments, from Taika. There is a scene early on in the movie when Viago is showing the camera men how he manages to catch his prey. The sequence that follows is one of the most hilarious and insane scenes ever put to screen.

Please enjoy!

Today’s Scene